How to Do a 21 Card Card Trick

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The magician has three rows of cards. An audience volunteer picks a card in his or her head and tells the magician what row it's in. The magician does that three times and on the third time tells the volunteer what their card was.

Lay out the cards, three across and seven down. It is important that you do this correctly. You have to lay down the cards row by row, not column by column.

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Have someone silently pick one of the cards and tell you what column it is in. (There are only three columns.)

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Push together each column and place the group of cards in the selected column in between the other two groups of cards.

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Imagine that the volunteer secretly chose the King of Hearts and then told you that their card was in the middle column. You would pick up the columns and would make sure the selected column was placed so that it was in the middle of the deck.

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Lay out the cards again in the same way, three across and seven down (row by row).

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Ask the volunteer where the card is now.

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Pick up the columns again (second time), as before, making sure the column with their card is in the middle of the deck.

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Lay them out again, the same way. :)

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Ask the volunteer which column the card is in now (third time).

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Pick up the columns again, as before, making sure the column with their card is in the middle of the deck.

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If the trick is performed correctly, the chosen card will always be eleventh (if the cards are face-down).

Community Q&A

I'm afraid there is no "easy" way. This is one of the easiest card tricks, requiring no sleight of hand at all. To simplify the steps, remember deal by rows, have contestant choose a column, repeat 3x, and in the final selected column, the fourth card is theirs.

When you pick up the cards the first time it puts the volunteer’s card in the middle 7 of the pack. Then the cards are dealt again, and those 7 are split up further with 2 in the first pile, 3 in the middle, and 2 in the last pile. That narrows it down to 2 or 3 cards. The last deal splits those 2/3 into different piles, and by picking up the cards correctly you have put the volunteer’s card into the middle of the middle of the middle of the pack.

Secondary "trick": After picking up all the rows with the volunteers selected row in the middle for the third time, turn the cards over face down and turn them over face up one at a time into a pile on the table in front of them. Count to yourself and make a mental note of the 11th card that you turn over. After turning over a few more cards on top of the eleventh card, say out loud "I'll bet you the next card I turn over is yours". After you make a small wager, go back into the pile to the get the eleventh card and turn in over face down next to the pile! This works especially well if you leave a little bit of the eleventh card showing in the pile on the table so they know definitively that you have gone past their card in the pile.

Also, after you go past the eleventh card and place three or four more on top of it, slow down and hold the next one in your hand without turning it over and "think" about that next card before you make your bet.

Another alternative: Follow the suggestions above remembering where the eleventh card is on the floor or table. Then ask the volunteer to draw a line through the middle of the cards and you take away the half that does not include the eleventh card. Keep asking the volunteer to draw a line with their finger to divide the cards while you keep removing the side that does not include the eleventh card. After several times, there will be just a few cards left and when they draw a line leaving only the 11th card on the table or floor, you magically turn over their card.

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wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, 17 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time.